Overtime hours worked by security officers at Three Mile Island for much of last
year were mostly within limits imposed by federal regulators, an investigation
by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission concluded.

The
NRC initiated the probe in response to a story published in The Patriot-News in
February, in which security workers expressed concerns about the effect
mandatory overtime was having on their effectiveness and their families.

The
officers, who are employed by Wackenhut Nuclear Services, also said that a
manpower shortage was disrupting training schedules and that fatigued staff were
reluctant to report themselves unfit for duty for fear of losing their jobs.

Pay
records obtained by the newspaper showed that one employee worked 13 hours a
day, five to six days a week for six weeks.

But
the NRC, relying on an internal investigation carried out by Exelon Nuclear, the
parent company of plant operator AmerGen Energy, concluded that the hours worked
were allowable under agency rules. Those rules allow individuals to work up to
72 hours a week. The rule also permits plant operators to average the hours
worked by several employees, allowing some, but not all, to spend longer hours
on the job.

The
probe found two exceptions where a security officer worked more than the allowed
hours. The finding was characterized as a minor violation that didn't require an
enforcement action, according to the NRC's report.

Investigators found two instances where training was delayed, but both sessions
were rescheduled, the report said.

Investigators also found that some security officers believed they could be
disciplined for reporting themselves unfit for duty. But a review of Wackenhut
records for 2006 "found no instances in which an officer was disciplined for
self declaring," the report said.

Rules to change:

The
agency's report drew critical responses from watchdog groups and plant workers
who questioned the legitimacy of its conclusion, given that it was carried out
by the plant owner.

"You
have the numbers that show what we were working. I think they speak for
themselves," said a plant employee who asked not to be identified. "Fatigue and
fitness-for-duty issues will always be a problem when you are working 12-hour
shifts and trying to do more with less."

Though the NRC's work-hour rules were met, the agency is poised to adopt new
rules that would make it harder for plant operators to work employees more than
48 hours a week. The new rules, expected to go into effect this year, would
eliminate group averaging.

The
change would force most plant owners to hire more officers, industry officials
said.

TMI
has added several security officers to its staff this year, AmerGen spokesman
Ralph DeSantis said.

"The
old condition was that people were trained on overtime," he said. "Now we're to
the point where officers can be trained on regularly scheduled work time. This
is where we want to get to."

Earlier this year, Wackenhut signed a contract with the United Government
Security Workers of America, the union that represents the security workers. The
contract calls for increasing the guard force by 12 percent over three years.

"We
now have the officers needed to properly man each crew/shift," said Michael
Burke, a union officer. "We have significantly cut our fatigue issues to where
fitness-for-duty issues should not cause us problems."

Conflict of interest?:

Some
industry observers criticized the NRC's policy of having the company investigate
itself.

The
TMI probe was carried out by a member of Exelon's Nuclear oversight group and a
security manager, DeSantis said.

"How
can the NRC allow AmerGen to investigate itself?" asked Tom Olivett, a former
member of the TMI security force and a former intelligence analyst for the Army.
"Is that not like allowing the rapist to investigate his own crime? What was the
NRC thinking?"

Eric
Epstein, chairman of the watchdog group Three Mile Island Alert, had similar
concerns.

"AmerGen
is not fit to examine and pardon itself," he said.

Richard J. Urban, a senior allegation coordinator for the NRC, said the agency
lacks the manpower to investigate each allegation it receives, so it refers
concerns back to the plant operators. "We ask that somebody who is independent
of the concern come and look at it."

The
results of the TMI review were verified by an independent review of plant
security by the NRC's physical security baseline inspection, which happens
roughly once a year, he said.

David Lochbaum, a nuclear safety expert for the Union of Concerned Scientists,
said the NRC's investigations go farther than they used to.

"The
company will do the bulk of the work, but the NRC will look at the path they
took to see if it's legit," he said.